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Sunday, 1 December 2013

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Photos: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Last week we attended the Second Edition of Sunday Papers Live. It was an interesting proposal: a day-long event, wrapped up in a newspaper format with a touch of Sunday laziness. There was food, loads of carpets, sofas, blankets, tea, cider, walks, fire, and really nice talks on each of the newspapers major topics: sports, art, books, politics, and even a crossword with clues performed live (photo 2). Two of the most interesting speakers of the day were Maajid Nawaz (UK News) and Jon Snow (World News).

Nawaz shared with us his (amazingly interesting) story and some interesting thoughts about, religion, extremism, democracy and the importance of (not listening to Russell Brand and) voting. Jon Snow, exalted what a great moment we are living, technology/communications/information wise. "It's a golden age for journalism and it's a golden age to be a journalist" he said. It doesn't really matter if the big news chains are cutting down budgets and heads, because it's up to us, empowered by technology to keep observing, researching, producing and sharing information.

I think that is a fantastic, incredible positive thought, and I really hope he's right. Meanwhile we will carry on and try to make our shared procrastination as meaningful as we can.

Photo via the New Stateman.

PS. In (un?)related news, you should read Martin Robbins's article How Jon Snow dissing the PlayStation 4 explains why no one cares you can't afford a house in the New Stateman that shows how traditional media is biased towards men over 50. "We live in a society where asking people over 65 to wait a couple of
years to receive their free money from the state is a major political
issue, but a party can casually talk about stripping welfare from under
25s as though they're somehow children - after all, you'd never see one
on Question Time." E.T.P. 7' (article) / E.T.P. 14'05'' (Charlie Brooker/Jon Snow's gaming video).